I bought the 4 element Gem Quad to go on my then brand new 71 foot crank up
way back in 1969. I had some problems getting the SWR down on 10 and 15 but
20 tuned up fine.
The problem I had was the top of the crank up fouled up the front to back.
No matter what I did
there was virtually no front to back on 20. I corresponded with the VE4
designer of the quad and he decided that the tower being in the middle of
the quad caused the problem. He suggested I put a long mast out the top of
the tower so the main parts of the quad would clear the tower.
A few weeks later Hurricane Camille blew through my QTH with 95 MPH winds
even though I was over 120 miles inland from the gulf. I decided that the
mast idea would not work so I sold the quad to another ham.
I had always used Quads on a big telephone pole and never had a problem so
reluctantly I went back to a big tri-band beam with 40 meter add on element.
The quad was extremely well built and I liked the idea that the elements
were spaced on each band and not fixed spaced. The 2 el version had no boom
and adding the 3rd and 4th element made for a boom of 12 feet with 20 meter
tip to tip being 24 feet. The tridetic design let the wind blow right
through each leg of the quad so it withstood the 95 mph winds where many
other antennas nearby came down. I even have a copy of the original
instructions in my files somewhere.
Dave K4JRB
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